I'm making a push to knock out some of our living room projects this month and at the top of the list was new drapes! We had bright red satin curtains that were beautiful but just didn't work with the neutral scheme we were moving towards. We also have a big green couch in the room, so with the red curtains it was looking a little....merry.

Even though we wanted a calm, soothing and neutral space, we also wanted to bring in some color. Thumbing through a Pottery Barn catalog, I spotted these babies and knew they were it!

A colorful but subdued botanical print on a gorgeous cream backdrop - yes, please! They had all the colors we wanted to bring into the space....but at $139.00 a pop (per panel!), they were beyond our budget.

So I went looking at Joann's and found this beauty:

This fabric by Robert Allen (Meadowview spice) was perfect! I waited for a 50% off home dec fabric sale coupled with an additional 20% off veteran's discount, and 6 yards later, we were in business!

Months later I finally got around to sewing them and am kicking myself for waiting so long! I couldn't be happier with the result...and for a fraction of the cost of my inspiration drapes!

I only have access to a couple of "before" pics (the rest are on my laptop that's in the shop), so I'll save most of the "before" pics for the whole room reveal. In the meantime, here's a peak of the old drapes:

Christmas I tell ya! We decided to turn this corner into a prayer/reading nook, so everything about it would change. The jolly green giant of a chair has moved to the office. It's super comfy, so we'll keep it and give it a new outfit.

We replaced it with this chair from our master....and with the new drapes, they are taking this room in a totally new direction.

I liked the look of the clip rings from the inspiration photo but I couldn't resist this chunkier version at Lowe's:

Oh Yes..

The new drapes completely brighten up the room....

And I love the fabric even more now that I see the finished product.

I was attempting to choose fabrics for other projects in this room, but I was doing it with the old drapes in place. I knew this fabric was coming in but it was hard to envision how they would all play together with those bold red drapes demanding the spot light. Now that the fabric inspiring the color palette is actually in the room, making those final choices on fabric and accessories to finish off the space has been so much easier...and a lot more fun!